The High Court has found the former owners of a nationalised Ukrainian bank liable for the misappropriation of more than $1.9bn in a judgment which was apparently leaked before hand down.
In the long awaited judgment in PJSC Commercial Bank Privatbank v Kolomoisky and others, Mr Justice Trower today found businessmen Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, who owned more than 80% of the bank before it was nationalised in 2016, jointly and severally liable to the bank for $1,911,877,385 compensation, less the real value of the transferred assets.
After handing down his findings this morning, the judge told the court he was ‘very alarmed by some correspondence I received last night’.
A draft judgment which was circulated to parties ‘seems to have been leaked in such a manner that it would become available on social media sites in Ukraine’ and 'one of the corporate service providers in Cyprus,' the judge said. ‘On the face of it, if there has been a leak which looks like it might have been, the court takes that very seriously indeed,’ he added.
The court heard that nobody seems to have any idea how the leak occurred and the solicitors who highlighted the potential leak ‘do not understand how it occurred’.
The judge said he would require a witness statement from solicitors explaining they have been in touch with the individuals authorised to have received the judgment to confirm they did not leak it. ‘When this has happened in the past, normally it is fairly apparent where the leak has come from. It is not immediately obvious in this case,' the judge added.
Before beginning submissions on the consequential matters, Tim Akkouh KC, for Privatbank, said: ‘On our side, we have already spoken to the claimant’s representatives who have confirmed they are not the source of any leak.’
The judge said he would hear from other parties at the end of the hearing.
The consequentials hearing at the Rolls Building continues.
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